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Monday, June 25, 2012

Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 103

Corporate Prayer continued...

Experience had taught Moses two crucial things. First, never underestimate your enemy, and second, know that your victory comes from the hand of God. Much heartache and defeat could have been spared countless souls if they would have learned these two truths, and applied them to their lives.

Knowing, however, is pointless without acting on the knowledge you possess, and being the wise leader he was, Moses acted on his knowledge.

Exodus 17:9, “And Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.’”

Moses wasn’t going to stand on the top of the hill for a better view of the battle, nor was he going on the top of the hill to avoid it. There was a specific purpose for which Moses went on top of the hill, and he took Aaron and Hur with him.

We can readily get distracted at this juncture, and extrapolate certain truths from this Scripture such as, when you have the rod of God in your hand you are always above the fray, and catchy as such truisms might be, our destination throughout this journey is the understanding and applying of prayer. As such, as much as it pains me, I will refrain from pointing out the tempting morsels within this Scripture, and focus on the importance of corporate prayer and agreement.

Exodus 17:11, “And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.”

What was happening was evident enough that the people started to notice the pattern. While Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed, gained ground, vanquished their foe, and was victorious. As soon as Moses let down his hands however, Amalek began to prevail and gain ground.

Exodus 17:12-13, “But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”

Three men had gone on top of the hill, but only one raised his hands toward heaven. The man in question was Moses, and after a given amount of time his hands became heavy. What Moses was doing, wasn’t just waving at the people below, it wasn’t just lifting his hands once in a while, he was doing warfare, and believe me when I say that spiritual warfare takes allot out of you.

Now here is where agreement and corporate unity come into play. Aaron and Hur saw that Moses’ hands had become heavy; they saw he could no longer hold them up, but they were not indifferent to his predicament.

They didn’t say, ‘well, it’s Moses, he’ll find a way through this, he always does.’

Aaron and Hur did all that they could do, because their heart, was as one with Moses’ heart, in that they desired to see the victory of Israel over Amalek.

And so, Aaron and Hur took a stone, put it under Moses, and as Moses sat down, they supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side.

Things might have been different if this had occurred in our upwardly mobile, dog-eat-dog generation. I could picture Aaron and Hur looking at Moses, seeing his exhaustion, noticing his hands had grown heavy, and rather than support his hands, rather than agree with him, roll him down the hill and attempt to take his place.

‘It’s our turn, it’s our time, the old man’s tired, he’s served his purpose, and we could probably do a far better job of leading the people than him. He’s so stubborn, so old school, he doesn’t understand the world has changed around him, and just ‘being faithful to God’ won’t cut it anymore.’

I’ve seen good men get stabbed in the back when they needed their hands supported, and when they needed someone to stand in agreement with them, time and again, so this is a sensitive topic.

I’ve seen good men being usurped, dismissed, thrown out of their own ministries like so much refuse, so some inept twit with a seminary diploma could take their place and show them how a ministry should really be run.

Those selfsame ministries that subsisted on faith for decades are now no more, because the up-and-coming enlightened breed who hijacked them, rode them into the ground trying to incorporate worldly gimmicks where once God, and God alone provided.

‘But it’s not your ministry it’s God’s ministry!’

How come the only people ever saying that, are those trying to snipe away other men’s ministries?

Of course it’s God’s ministry, but every true man of God who has been called to ministry has bled, and sweat, and poured their entire lives into the work to which they were called. They invested the most precious resource given to man, time, and for someone to swoop in and attempt to take away that for which they labored untold hours is not only unseemly and uncouth, it is downright evil and wrong.

Moses grew weak, his hands grew heavy, and he needed someone to stand with him, to agree with him, to help him where he needed it, and thankfully, Aaron and Hur were there, not as would-be future leaders of God’s people, but as servants who desired to serve, and help in whatever manner they could.

As sad and tragic as the following might sound, there are less and less servants roaming about today, and more individuals eying management positions hoping to overthrow or otherwise dispossess those who have labored all their lives for the glory of God, because it’s much easier stealing something another has built, than building it yourself.